Should You Adopt an Adult, a Puppy, or a Senior Pomeranian?

If you’re in the market for a pom, you’ll have to decide how old a Pomeranian you want. Broadly speaking you can view potential poms in 3 age categories:

Puppies (less than 1 year old)

Adult Pomeranians (2-6 years old)

Senior Pomeranians (7 years and older)

1. Puppies

If nothing else, the experience of choosing a puppy is an exciting event! What’s cuter than a 3 inch furball in your lap, all ready for you to lead out into the world?

Advantages

The greatest advantage to adopting a puppy is that you’ll get to play a crucial role in shaping your pom during its formative years. Unlike adults– who generally have their personalities and habits in place when you adopt them– with puppies it’s up to you to shape them into the dog you want them to be! Puppies also bond quickly to their owners, and you’ll likely have no deeper dog-human bond than with a dog you adopted as a young’un

Disadvantages

But as Spiderman’s Uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. Since YOU will be raising your pom during its formative years this means that you have great responsibility for making sure it grows up healthy and you should expect A LOT OF WORK! Puppies eat constantly and also aren’t housetrained. You’ll have to be diligent about feeding and training him to ensure he grows up a health, well-behaved adult.

Also, puppies are fragile! This means that adopting a puppy is a bad idea for households with young children! (In fact, this is true in general for poms of all ages)

2. Adults

If you adopt an adult pom (around 2 years to 6 years), you’ll get a pom in the prime of his or her life. This means you will get an energetic, physically peaked dog that is eager to follow your commands, is still eager to learn new tricks, and loves to have fun with you.

Advantages

One main advantage to getting an adult is that adults require less work from you than puppies. Since your pom is already full-grown, you don’t have to be as obsessive about making sure you feed him enough to support a growing body. Also, by this time your pom should have learned how to entertain himself to some extent, unlike a puppy who will want your company all the time. (Adults can fall into this trap, too, though!)

Of course, with an adult pom you may have to give him more time to bond with you compared to a puppy. Also your pom will have formed its personality and temperament so you have less leeway in trying to shape him during his formative growing years.

3. Senior Poms

Senior poms are wiser and more mellow, but no less deserving of your love. Unfortunately many of the dogs who have trouble finding homes in shelters or rescue organizations are senior poms because people don’t want to invest time into a dog that’s already nearing its twilight years.

But adopting a senior pom can be a blast. This is something we know personally (read about our poms Teddy and Yogito learn more about our story)

Advantages

A senior pom will be more mellow, less demanding of your time, and tend to bark less since it’s less jittery and less energetic. Senior poms can be great for someone who wants a more low-key dog and one who doesn’t jump at every sound. Poms also tend to live a long time (14-16 years) so adopting a senior pom doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have a lot less years with you pom than if adopted a senior German Shepard, for example, who usually only live about 10 years.

Disadvantages

However, with age comes creaky joins and other health problems! Unlike with an adult pom, this also means that if you spot health issues you have less time to try to correct them before they become serious. This can mean more vet visits and therefore more money you have to spend. Of course in the grand scheme of owning any dog this shouldn’t be a concern, but it is nonetheless something to keep in mind

Also, since the pom is older and probably had another owner for a long time, it may take longer to bond with you than an adult pom.